MYETACEAE. 



261 



Family 5. MYRTACEAE R. Br. 



MYRTLE FAMILY. 



Shrubs or trees, abounding in pungent and aromatic volatile oil. Leaves 

 opposite, or rarely alternate or whorled, simple, pellucid-punctate. Stipules 

 wanting. Flowers perfect, regular. Calyx with 4, 5 or many valvate or 

 imbricated persistent sepals, or cap-like and deciduous. Petals inserted 

 on the margin of a disk, or sometimes wanting. Stamens numerous or very 

 rarely as many as the sepals; filaments distinct or partially united; anthers 

 opening longitudinally. Ovary inferior or partly so, in a fleshy disk, 

 1-many-celled. Styles terminal or rarely lateral, united. Stigma usually 

 terminal, entire. Ovules solitary or numerous. Fruit often crowned with 

 the calyx. Seeds straight, often angled; testa membranous or crustaceous; 

 endosperm wanting. A large family, consisting of about 70 genera and 

 some 2700 species, mostly tropical. 



1. EUGENIA L. 



Shrubs or trees, with usually glabrous foliage. Leaves opposite, commonly 

 leathery, pinnately veined, the flowers axillary, solitary, or in umbel-like 

 raceme-like or congested clusters. Calyx-lobes 4 or 5. Petals 4 or 5, white. 

 Stamens numerous; filaments filiform, distinct and in several series, or aggre- 

 gated into 4 groups and slightly united. Ovary sessile, 2-3-celled. Ovules 

 several in each cavity. Berries crowned by the calyx-lobes. Seeds often 1-4. 

 Embryo with thick cotyledons and a short radicle. [Named in honor of 

 Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736) a patron of botany and horticulture.] 

 About 600 species, of tropical distribution. Type species : Eugenia uniflora L. 



Flowers glomerate in the axils, short-pedicelled : fruit black, smooth. 1. E. a.rilliii-i*. 

 Flowers solitary or few together, long-pedicelled ; fruit red, ribbed. 2. E. uniflora. 



1. Eugenia axillaris (Sw.) 

 Willd. WHITE STOPPER. (Fig. 

 281.) A shrub or tree, reaching a 

 height of 20, with a maximum 

 trunk diameter of about 10', the 

 bark shallowly fissured, the 

 branchlets terete. Leaves elliptic- 

 ovate or nearly elliptic, unpleas- 

 antly odorous, li'-3' long, revo- 

 lute-margined, paler beneath than 

 above and black-dotted ; the peti 

 oles l"-3" long, margined ; racemes 

 cluster-like, axillary ; pedicels short, 

 pubescent; calyx-lobes 4, rounded; 

 corolla about 2" broad; petals 4, 

 surpassing the calyx-lobes, gland- 

 ular-punctate ; fruit depressed- 

 globose, 5"-6" in diameter, black, 

 smooth, glandular-punctate, sweet. 

 [Myrtus axillaris Sw. ; E. monti- 

 cola of Reade, Verrill, Hemsley 

 and Millspaugh.] 



Abundant on the south side of St. David's Island and on Cooper's Island ; fre- 

 quent between Castle Harbor and Harrington Sound: Hall's Island: Abbot's Cliff; 

 Boaz Island. Native. Florida and the West Indies. Flowers in summer and 

 autumn. Its seed was probably brought to Bermuda by a bird. 



